SHOFTIM (Judges)

Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9 Isaiah 51:12-52:12 John 14:9:20 TORAH

BERESHIT SHEMOT VAYIKRA BAMIDBAR DEVARIM

• We learnt about the importance of our example. • The 10 commandments we reiterated • We also read about a few laws, especially related to intermarriage, from where Judaism learns the prohibition of marrying non-Jews. • The consequences of rebelling against God • Clean and Unclean Foods, warnings against Idolatry and Festivals as Passover, Weeks and Booths are reviewed • THIS WEEK ● Municipal Judges and Officers ● Forbidden Forms of Worship ● Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges ● Limitations of Royal Authority ● Privileges of Priests and Levites ● Child-Sacrifice, Divination, and Magic Prohibited ● A New Prophet Like Moses ● Laws concerning the Cities of Refuge ● Property Boundaries ● Law concerning Witnesses ● Rules of Warfare ● Law concerning Murder by Persons Unknown THIS WEEK LEGAL DECISIONS BY PRIESTS AND JUDGES

Deuteronomy 17:9-11 (NVI)

Go to the levitical priests and to judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict. You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the Lord will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do. Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or the left. THIS WEEK

DO THE SAGES RETAIN THEIR AUTHORITY IN THE EVENT THAT THEY ARE MISTAKEN? THIS WEEK

Rashi says: Even if they tell you that right is left and that left is right (you should listen to the sages) certainly if they tell you right is right and left is left. (Rashi, Deut. 17:11) SHOFTIM

The Jerusalem Talmud records a dissenting opinion: Is it possible that if they told you right is left and left is right you would have to listen to them? The verse teaches we must follow [the sages] "left and right" only when they tell you right is right, and left is left. (Yerushalmi Horiot 2b) SHOFTIM

This is the version that I believe we must adopt today. It is a version that teaches us that we must be critical of our leaders, of our rabbis and of our teachers. We do not just blindly accept whatever they say, but we must think, analyze and if necessary, disagree and disobey.

This is a critical new approach to Jewish education which I believe we must all embrace — that of critical thinking and finally of personal responsibility.

Rabbi David Frankel SHOFTIM LIMITATIONS OF ROYAL AUTHORITY

Deuteronomy 17:18-19 (NVI)

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees. SHOFTIM

Revelations 1:6 (NKJV)

and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

If we have all been called as kings and priests, then we must all have a copy of the law and meditate every day so that we do not separate ourselves from doing good and walking in His ways.

SOMEONE HERE THAT NEVER PLAYED AN INSTRUMENT OR WAS IT NOT GOOD PLAYING MUSIC?

EVEN IF WE DON'T UNDERSTAND, WE MUST OBEY HIS INSTRUCTION, SO OUR LIFE WILL SOUND GOOD. SHOFTIM Joshua 1:7-8

Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this book of the law always on your lips: meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. SHOFTIM

John 14:15-16, 26 (NKJV) If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. LET’S PRAY